Elephants
Elephants are large quadruped mammals. They are characterized by their large, floppy ears, long trunks and tusks. Elephants are indigenous to regions of Africa and South Asia. Hunters are known to kill elephants for both sport and money. Ivory from an elephant's tusk is worth quite a lot on the black market. * One of the most infamous cinematic elephants of all time is Dumbo, who is the eponymous pachyderm from the 1941 animated feature Dumbo by Walt Disney Productions and RKO Pictures. Dumbo had overly large ears, which made him the laughing stock of the circus that his mother and he worked at. As such, he was usually the target of taunts and cruel jests. Miraculously, Dumbo found a way to use his gigantoid ears as wings so he could fly. Now that he had a new "trick", he suddenly became the star attraction at the circus. * In the 1930 Marx Brothers comedy film Animal Crackers, Captain Geoffrey T. Spaulding was an explorer and a safari hunter, who gained prominence for his expeditions to Africa, which he referred to as "God's Country". Spaulding later recounted his ventures as an elephant hunter, claiming that he had once shot an elephant in his pajamas, but admitted that he did not know how an elephant got into his pajamas. He told Roscoe Chandler of his difficulties with removing elephant tusks. * In Nathan Juran's 1957 giant monster movie 20 Million Miles to Earth, the Venusian creature dubbed Ymir broke out of a zoo in Rome, which also housed an elephant. The two titans wrestled about through the streets of Rome crushing anything that got into their path. At one point the elephant was knocked over, crushing hapless pedestrians. The alien grabbed the elephant and bit down hard into its neck, killing it. .]] * An elephant was used as a prop animal for the Bantha seen in ''Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. If you look closely, you can see the unmistakable elephant feet beneath the costume. * Circus elephants were also seen in the 1985 film The Bride. Newly hired performers Viktor and Rinaldo had to work with elephants during their performances. * A large Indian elephant played a small role in Disney's Aladdin in 1992. When Aladdin wished to become a prince, the Genie transformed his wardrobe and gave him an entire entourage. He strode through the streets of Agrabah on a litter atop an elephant accompanied by several harem girls. * In the 1995 Disney comedy Operation Dumbo Drop a team of Green Berets during the Vietnam War in 1968 led by Captain Sam Cahill and Captain T.C. Doyle, attempted to transport an elephant through jungle terrain to a local South Vietnamese village which in turn helped American forces monitor Viet Cong activity. Notes * Cutis laxa is a connective tissue disorder that causes excessive growth of skin, which has also been identified as Pachydermatocele. The human curiosity, Joseph Merrick, also known as the Elephant Man, may have suffered from this as well as a bone disorder. The life of Joseph Merrick (renamed John Merrick) was chronicled in the 1980 period drama The Elephant Man by David Lynch. * Another form of Cutis laxa is Elephantiasis, or Elephantitus, which has similar symptoms to Pachydermatocele. Guys who suffer from this have balls the size of baby pigs. Category:Animals Category:20 Million Miles to Earth (1957)/Miscellaneous Category:Aladdin (1992)/Miscellaneous Category:Animal Crackers (1930)/Miscellaneous Category:Dumbo (1941)/Miscellaneous Category:Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)/Miscellaneous Category:Operation Dumbo Drop (1995)/Miscellaneous